


A Fairy's Tale

by MoonlightShines (Thatkillervibe)



Series: Killervibe Week 2019 [6]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Fluff and Angst, Killervibe Week, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2020-10-05 20:15:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20494694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatkillervibe/pseuds/MoonlightShines
Summary: Caitlin always thought Cisco was a weird fairy.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> :)))) So I ran behind schedule and had to turn this into a multi-chap. Here's chapter one. And now to run along and try to salvage my ~actual~ fairytale fic.

Daffodils were nice but tulips were better. 

Caitlin used to live in a tulip. And she was perfectly fine with that, but one day her tulip withered away, and she had to pack her bags and find a new home. 

  
The empty house at the top of the oak tree called her name, and so there she flew, settling down in the village of Fairy Forest. The closest she’s been to the other fairies in a long time. 

✨

The fish gape their mouths, swimming in dizzying circles around Caitlin. She huffed as her light brown hair floated up, twisting in the bubbles like a mermaid. An actual one passed her by, smirking wickedly at her frustration. 

Caitlin ignored her. Mermaids always think they’re all that. They’re not. 

She propelled her fists forward, kicking her legs up, splashing the water along the shore of the ravine. She gasped as she came up for air, swimming at the surface and inspecting her watering. Hopefully, it was enough to keep the flowers alive, but she knew deep down she’d have to repeat this some more. This drought was the worst the land has seen since she’d been created. 

Caitlin sensed the eyes on her before her ears picked up the hovering buzz. 

“Woah,” said Cisco in awe. His wings fluttered like a hundred flaps per second. He tucked his hair behind his ear, eyes brighter than the rest of him. “It really doesn’t damage at all!” 

Caitlin glanced backwards at her wings, the water slicking down her back. “I’m a water fairy,” she deadpanned.

“Yes,” he grinned. “You so totally are. The way you _ swim.” _He gets a dreamy look, flying in a big loop. “I wish I could swim.” 

He raised his knee, removing his slippers and stuffing them in his slung shoulder bag. Cisco lowered one foot, dipping it into the ravine and flexed his toes. A wave splashed up against his shin. He shrieked and shot upwards fifty feet in the air, a line of pixie dust trailing behind him. 

Caitlin sneezed and rolled her eyes. 

She used the time alone to hold her breath and dive back under, amassing a stronger current this time for the daffodils. 

She reemerged, assessing her fourth try. 

“I brought some buckets,” Cisco said suddenly, popping up behind her. 

Caitlin startled, turning around. She thought surely he left by now. 

“Father Joe thought if we brought it to the forest we’d cut down on your workload.” 

“That’s not necessary.” Caitlin squinted up at the sun. “There are other water talents who can help. You should go back to...tinkering.” 

Cisco clutched his buckets to his chest, offended. “I _ was _tinkering. I welded these myself!” 

Caitlin had to begrudgingly admit the buckets were well made. If a few fairies helped her, she might be able to sleep in for the first time in two weeks. She scowled, just at the thought of her abandoned bed. This drought had her crankier than an animal fairy finding an oiled-stained duck. 

“Besides,” he continued. “The water fairies are stretched thin.” 

Caitlin returned to the ravine and started wading, her wings twitched with irritation. 

“You don’t think I know that?” 

Cisco frowned, stung by her words. 

His wings curled protectively around his frame. “What’s wrong with you? I’ve only ever been nice.” 

Caitlin always thought Cisco was a weird fairy. He had too much fun with his work. His every breath screamed happy tinker. Caitlin always thought it was showing off, coming up with ideas to make other talent fairies more efficient at their own specialty. It made them look stupid, like they needed help with their own gifts. 

It was jarring and distracting, Caitlin had always complained bitterly to Iris, the sun fairy who met her where winter met dawns as they worked together to thaw the ice in the Spring. It made no sense for a fairy to love their talents that much. To the point where Cisco’s little hut had fireflies shining through his crystal window panes earlier than the earliest morning riser, hammering away with his stone chiselled tool while Caitlin got up to start her day while it was still dark. 

And he was friendly too, when not working, not just to Caitlin. He made conversation with any fairy who would listen. He talked to the speed fairies and the tooth fairies and mother Cecile like they were kindred spirits. 

Caitlin could never. 

  
And he spoke to animals, despite not being an animal talent. 

  
That...That was just bizarre. Cisco would gather around a crowd of furry friends with acorn dispensers for chipmunks and seed slings for the cardinals up in the trees. Caitlin even caught him watching over a hawk’s nest while the mother left in search of food. 

Not that Caitlin was keeping tabs on Cisco’s whereabouts or anything. He just always seemed to be around. 

_ “He’s got light in his heart,” _Father Joe said when Caitlin asked if he were normal. She figured if the wisdom fairy had anything more to say, he would’ve. He never did elaborate on it. 

  
_ “My dear, this is not about him.” _ The old fairy tapped the middle of her chest, over her thin cast of sleek frost. Caitlin’s delicate wings curled protectively around herself. _ “The real danger is the envious darkness that lies in yours.” _

Caitlin rolled her eyes once more. There was no darkness in her heart. She was not envious of Cisco. She was a good fairy. A great one. She simply liked to work in silence, rewarded by her merit. It was not unreasonable. 

“Just leave me alone,” she groused, the sopping wet bangs hanging over her eyes. She lifted her tiny fingers to brush them back, looking up at the tinker fairy in the sky. 

“I’m trying to work. You staring at me isn’t going to help me save the flowers.” 

“Okay,” Cisco said, but kept talking as if he hasn’t heard her. He darted forward, reaching out to touch her left wing. “Okay, but what if I could replicate the coating of whatever it is that preserves your wings to use as a—”

His hand was warm. His touch sent a tingly feeling down her spine. 

Caitlin slapped his hand away, scared of the sensation. “Stop.” 

He reeled his hand back, a funny look on his face. 

He looked a little dazed. “Sorry.” He sounded like he meant it this time. 

“Caitlin—” 

Caitlin ducked her head back underwater, closing her eyes. She thought hard about the power she’ll need to channel in the next wave, fighting the red anger rising within her. She let out a silent scream. She couldn’t think! She could still hear Cisco’s yammering above her. How was she to focus with his friendly ear-worm voice stuck in her head? She broke the surface, falling along with a choppy rapid, breaking against a stone. 

“Caitlin, hey, look. I know this is sudden, but I wanted to ask. Do you want to maybe go to the solstice festival with—” 

Without thinking, she grabbed his flesh ankle, yanking him downwards. Cisco yelped and he tumbled into the ravine. 

He struggled, his wings fighting against the waves until the force ripped through his delicate film.

He started to sink.

Caitlin stared, horrified, until her Good instincts kicked in and she dove underwater after him. 

He was falling fast. Cisco’s eyelids closed, bubbles escaping from his parted lips. Caitlin panicked, hurdling after. She almost had him, straining her arm, her muscles burning, to grasp his outstretched hand when her own wing got caught in seaweed. She kicked her little legs frantically, ripping the green slime off from her waist until she finally broke free. 

She whipped around and spot the mermaid, begging with pleading eyes for help. The mermaid flipped her hair over her shoulder and snatched the glittering necklace snug around her throat, breaking it to pieces. The mermaid gave Caitlin a glowing beam to use as a flashlight. 

She found Cisco tangled with anemone in a dark, murky corner. 

Caitlin tugged him out, up from under his arms. She was losing air too, going lightheaded as her pixie dust started to lose its shimmer. 

After forever and a half, they broke the surface. Caitlin heaved and dragged Cisco to the shore. 

“Help!” she screamed, laying him down. The fairy was unresponsive, his glow dwindling to a barely-there shine. She slapped his cheeks. Nothing happened. She sat him up and thumped his back. One wing began to spasm in the grass. 

“Cisco?!” She shook his shoulders. “Wake up! Cisco _ please.” _

She flew up and over, swinging each leg to either side so she could press her hands against his chest. Caitlin ripped off his petal shirt, feeling for a heartbeat. 

There was none. 

She gasped, and scrabbled her fingers, trying to remember the steps to save a fairy life. She wished for unconditional love, first. Then laughter and peace, all the magical ways good fairies were born. But she was not human, nor Mother Cecile. It won’t work. 

Caitlin wracked her brain for the next best thing, despite having no healing talent. Her compressions were shaky and futile--she was crying too hard to be effective. 

She reeled back on her heels, devastated. 

They were alone. Too far away from the forest for anyone to hear her when she called out again, her voice stolen by the wind. 

Cisco’s wing stopped spasming, growing weak, until a sputtering puff of pixie dust collapsed out of it, his magic dissipating into the haze of the sun. 

Caitlin wiped the flowing tears from her eyes--darn water talent--with the back of her hand, staring as Cisco’s light went out completely. 

She just murdered a fairy. 

“No,” she whimpered. “No, no no no. I can bring you back!" 

She searched her pocket for her own pixie dust but she had used it all on herself to increase her breathing span underwater. 

Never had Caitlin seen things spiral out of control so badly. 

“I can bring you back,” Caitlin swore violently, mad with desperation, failing to notice her own light faltering. She went back to chest compressions, then remembered the other half of CPR used on the Mainland. Caitlin plugged Cisco’s nose and leaned over him, performing mouth-to-mouth. 

She let go after a minute. Her clear wings wilting with defeat. 

She wiped his wet hair from his face with shaky fingers, tucking them behind his ears how he liked. The magical colour drained from his corpse. Caitlin realized with heartbreaking guilt just how beautifully crafted he was, now that she really bothered to take him in.

She cupped his cold cheek, tracing her thumb against his greying face. 

Lovely. 

Cisco was lovely.

Just as lovely on the outside as Father Joe claimed was his enchanted heart, that used to beat in his ribcage, beneath his soaked shirt. 

Caitlin stole his light. She killed the tinker, this good fairy. Maybe the most good in all of Fairy Forest. 

“I’m sorry,” she hiccupped. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was doing. I didn’t mean to—I don’t _ want _this.” 

Caitlin leaned her forehead against his cold one, curling her shaking wings around his body, keeping her chattering teeth at bay as she pressed her face to his forehead.

Water splashed over her nose. Caitlin peeled back, her eyelashes damp from tears and lake as Cisco coughed up more water. 

Caitlin’s wings flit excitedly, her jaw dropping with disbelief. 

Cisco groaned, and Caitlin didn’t waste a second, hoisting him up over her shoulder and flying as fast as ever. 

Fairies swarmed around her as she carried Cisco to Fairy Forest. Barry passed her by, then reversed, zooming backwards to fly parallel, jaw gaping at the scene. “What happened to Cisco?” 

Caitlin was so relieved to see a speed fairy. “You have to get him to your father,” she begged, shifting his deadweight from off her shoulder to his. Barry took his friend without hesitation, concern written all over his face. 

“Caitlin—” 

“Go!” she cried, wiping the flowing tears from her eyes. “Barry, I don’t know if he’s going to make it! Now!” 

Barry looked down to see how dim he shined, deathly, shivering without pixie dust, and broke into the fastest flight known to fairy. 

Caitlin’s chest began to heave, the world spinning too fast on its axle, the flowers and trees and insects buzzing in her ears. 

It was all too much, the dizziness, the shock. The way the sun-scorched against her back and aching wings, and then she was crashing downwards, scraping her shoulder against oak bark as she lost control of her flight, smash-landing into fresh dirt in Kara’s flower bed. 

Her knees dug into the earth as they folded underneath her weight, and Caitlin nearly toppled over. 

A crowd surrounded her immediately. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Are you hurt?”

“I think she’s dehydrated!”

“But she’s a water fairy!”

“There’s a first for everything, Ralph.”

Caitlin put a hand up slowly, trying to dispel the chatter, but only found herself flopping back, her head lolling, woozy, until she was hurling into a thimble thrust at her by Linda. 

“Cisco,” she mumbled, her voice coming out in a croak. A vacant look overtook her eyes, images of the tinkerer thrashing and begging for mercy against the waves as she flew stagnant like Fairy Forest’s most despicable idiot. 

“He drowned.” 

_ She _drowned him. Caitlin was a Bad Fairy. 

Iris and Linda shared horrified looks over her head as Ralph shouted. “He’s dead!?”

Kara tumbled out of her crushed daisy, shucking off her flowy petal dress to reveal her uniform. “What happened? My home started shaking and—”

She took in the scene, more fairies dropping to the ground like flies. Some started to wail.

“Whose light gone out?” she demanded, but her chin trembled, revealing her fear. 

Caitlin couldn’t reply, curling into the ground, clutching the thimble with old disgusting pixie spit. 

“_ Cisco’s_,” Iris answered.

“What!?!”

A chorus of wings hummed as everyone above her began to panic. 

“It went out,” Caitlin sobbed. “After I pulled him out. It went out then came back. But it’s so weak—And his dust left him. He’s not moving.” 

Iris and Kara pulled Caitlin up from Kara’s Flower Bed, rushing her over to a tree stump in the shade instead. 

The light fairy kneeled in front of her, warmth laced in her voice as she cupped her cheek. 

“You pulled him out? You saved him? Where is he now?”

Caitlin refused to meet Iris’ eyes. Not when they were shining with admiration. 

“Barry took him to his father,” she whispered. 

Wally pushed through the crowd to hand his sister an elixir.

“I came as soon as I heard.” 

Iris pushed the chestnut cup to Caitlin’s lips. 

“Drink,” she urged kindly. 

“You’re a hero,” Ralph, the tooth fairy, breathed. “If it weren’t for you, who knows when we’d find him washed up against the shore.”

Caitlin’s stomach rolled violently. She squeezed her eyes shut.

“Ralph,” Wally hissed. “Hush up, you’re making her sick.”

Iris shushed them both, squeezing Caitlin’s wet shoulders, drying them with her light. “He’s right. You saved his life. And Henry is a good healer. He’ll fix him. I swear it on the sun.” 

“No,” she choked. Her grip on the elixir trembled. 

Why were they being so _nice_? 

She didn’t _deserve _this compassion. 

“Get away from me. Stop. You don’t understand. I—”

“Caitlin, it’s gonna be okay.” 

They had it all wrong. 

Caitlin watched with growing wide eyes as Linda discussed with her other communication talent fairies how they would honour her. Ralph and Wally were celebrating her, clapping her on the back.

Kara began showering her wings with their extra pixie dust.

But they had no idea. She was no hero. She didn’t save Cisco! She _killed _him. She had _murdered _a fairy. 

Kara put her strong hand on her arm, and Caitlin hissed, recoiling from the touch. 

“Oh,” said Iris, noticing the trickle of Fairy blood down her arm for the first time. “You poor thing. You’re hurt.” 

She stood her up and called her brother over. “Help me get her to the healer. We can check up on Cisco there.” 

“No,” Caitlin thrashed. “I don’t want to go! Leave me alone! I’m fine—I’m—”

“You’re _not _fine. Wally?”

“Gotcha,” the younger speed fairy said, hoisting Caitlin over his shoulder and zipping away. 

Caitlin couldn’t fight against a speed fairy. She slumped against him, and not a few moments later was she being laid down in a fairy bed. 

Barry and his father peered over her, assessing the damage to her arm by the tree. They cleaned her wound and wrapped it with a bandage while she stared ahead, refusing to look at the grass curtain separating the room in half. She knew who was on the other side. Her wings curled around her body like a shield, and she would not answer the doctor’s questions, her heart spasming in fear. 

If Henry was with her, treating the pathetic little cut and not with Cisco, trying to save his life, it had to have been because he’s—He didn’t make it. 

He came back only to die again. He gave Caitlin hope only to crush her pixie spirit. 

“Why isn’t she talking?” Wally asked, wringing his hands worriedly. 

“She’s in shock,” Henry said, shining a firefly bulb into her eyes. He slapped at her cheeks and spoke to her in a gentle tone. “Come on now, it’s alright. You had a fright and witnessed something terrible, but you’re alright now. No need to panic.” 

Barry knelt in front of her so that his face was in her view. He put his hands on her knees. “My dad’s right. You’re going to be okay. You did the right thing, bringing Cisco to me, he’s sleeping now.” 

Caitlin tore her empty gaze from the wall. “The Great Sleep?” 

Barry’s jaw slackened, understanding her fear. “No,” he soothed. “No. No. Frack_. _Not the Great Sleep!” He rushed to open the curtains, shoving the grass aside to open the partition, revealing Cisco asleep on the other identical cot. In colour. 

Caitlin stood up abruptly, shaking away Wally’s hold to wobbly fly over Cisco. He was wrapped in a woollen sheet, his chest rose and fell, taking breaths. His pixie dust shimmering at a duller, slower gleam. 

“How is that possible?” 

Henry landed at the table next to the sleeping fairy, rubbing at his poor eyes. His spectacles slid down his nose as he checked on him. Caitlin’s wings slowed as she flew back to the ground too, standing still. Her hand wrapped around her bandaged arm as she watched the doctor administer more pixie potions to pour down Cisco’s throat. 

“I don’t know,” the doctor confided honestly. He looked at Caitlin, then back at his patient. “Boys,” he said to Barry and his daughter in law’s brother. “I need to speak to Caitlin alone, please.” 

Barry tried to protest, but Wally, sensing something cooking that wasn’t his business, grabbed his arm and fled. 

The healing talent busied with his potions, screwing the lid to the last one he used shut tight. 

“This fairy should be dead. Only element fairies can sustain so much water intake. What dust did you use on him?” 

“None,” Caitlin said. She frowned. That sounded bad, but she was out of dust from her exertion watering flowers. “Should I have? I’m not a healing talent—I didn’t know.” 

Henry nodded at a chair, asking her to sit down. “You’re misunderstanding me.” 

Caitlin clammed up, feeling put on the spot. “I didn’t know what to do. I tried the human tricks, but they didn’t work and his light was fading so fast. I tried CPR like they do on the mainland. Chest compressions and mouth to mouth.”

But the old doctor smiled, nodding his head like he expected it all along. 

“We’re fairies,” he reminded her, but not unkindly. “That doesn’t work on pixie folk.” 

Her wings sagged, embarrassed. _ “I know _Fairy Allen, but I was desperate.” She frowned, rewinding his words, her eyes sliding to the tinker fairy, still very much alive next to her. “Wait a minute. Yes, it did. I performed mouth to mouth and he choked out the water.” 

Henry smiled a big warm thing that spread his entire face. “You gave him the kiss of life.” 

“I—” Caitlin reddened. No, absolutely not. She couldn’t have had the doctor spin the story that way. Not after she was the one who gave him the brush of_ death. _Besides, she knew it was simply a matter of speech, but its implications were blasphemous.

“No,” she corrected firmly. “I don’t have that power. Only Mother Cecile can create life.” She stared at her hands, inwardly scolding them for how they wanted to wrap around Cisco’s limp ones. To squeeze warmth back into his body. The urge was so sudden and alien. Caitlin blinked up at the doctor from beneath her eyelashes. “Why are you laughing?” 

His expression was soft and sincere, not callous or taunting. “I wish you didn’t have to learn this from such dire circumstances, but I am in no way likening you to the Queen.”

“No,” she muttered and blushed. “Of course not. That would be ridiculous.” 

“What isn’t ridiculous is how you saved Cisco’s life. He was dead and you revived him...Only pixie-mates have that gift.” 

Something happened to Caitlin then. The frost around her torso cracked down the middle, shattering into tiny pieces. 

Her wings expanded involuntarily, her pixie dust littering the ground. _ Pixie-Mate. _But that meant...Caitlin’s hand flew to her mouth as a terrible noise emitted from it. 

“Oh no, Fairy Allen, you’re mistaken—” she denied feebly, unable to recognize her own voice as she said it. 

But the healer fairy was in no mood to hear Caitlin’s protesting, grabbing her small hand and connecting it with Cisco’s. The shooting tingling feeling shot up her spine, just like it did when Cisco touched her wing by the ravine, the sensation that had her heart pounding up to her ears. The one that made her scared, which had her mind reeling, which made her want to _push him away. _

Oh, but it was such a lovely feeling, warmth and comfort, a pulsating rhythm of love dripping into her veins. Nothing had felt so right in her entire life. It was beautiful. 

“Now Caitlin, no need to _ cry_.”

Her shoulders shook. Light like Iris’s sunbeams illuminated his face, pixie dust shining in golds and purples and blues and reds around him. 

Pixie tears dripped down her cheeks as she clutched onto his limp fingers. “I’m not right for him,” she insisted, knowing it was true. “I’m not right.”

“Nonsense,” Fairy Allen tutted, with an exasperated twit of his wings. “All pixie-mates are a perfect match. It’s the way it’s always been.”

Caitlin squeezed Cisco’s hand one last time, letting his relaxing aura calm her wings down, but she tore her gaze away from him, staring out the window. 

It was a lot to take in. 

She thought about Father Joe’s careful warning. “_The real danger is the envious darkness that lies in yours.” _

Caitlin had to go. 

Doc Allen’s face softened. “Yes, I suppose it’s a lot to take in. You need to sleep and rest.”

“Yes,” she mumbled to herself, still shook up. She took shaky blind steps backwards, nearly falling right out the tree. “I need rest,” she said. “I need—” she swallowed. “I’ll be back. I’ll be back!”

Doc Allen returned to his potions, monitoring Cisco with a frown. “Please do, pixie-mates heal faster when together.” 

Caitlin could only nod, pressing against her bandaged arm, then spun on her slipper and fled. 

So many fairies tried to approach her as she left. Jesse and Barry, Ralph and other water fairies, but Caitlin flew past them, only wanting to go home. She made her way into her oak tree, and pulled her blanket up her quivering body, despite the heat, willing sleep.

She hadn’t slept in weeks. Her wings were restless, and she felt a pull, some indescribable need to head south, as strings tight like cords yanked in her heart. 

She looked down at her melted frost, revealing her pixie heart, shining brightly through her dress. 

She pressed through it, felt its beat, its desperation, the longing in it. It cried for her pixie-mate. For Cisco.

But she was no good for him. What fairy drowns her mate? She turned over to her side and closed her eyes.

She dreamed of him. It wasn’t the first time.

✨

Caitlin bolted upright in bed.

The flowers.

She ran on her two feet across the forest to the Ravine at midnight to tend to them, all of Fairy Forest fast asleep. 

She made it to the water and began summoning the waves with her hands.

It rose from the ravine until it lifted in the air, surrounded by her pixie dust, ruthless and forceful and she screamed as she watered them, throwing all of her might, but two daffodils were already withered wilted, drooping low, browning with death. 

She gave up with a cry, her knees crashing against the dirt and mud, her wings flexed out with exhaustion.

She was a bad water talent, a bad pixie-mate and a terrible fairy. 

An object knocked against her bare feet behind her, washed up on the shore from her performance. 

She turned. It was Cisco’s bucket.

Half filled with water, she threw it at the daffodil stem in a half-hearted, weak attempt.

The daffodil lifted from its awkward angle, straightening immediately with a healthy glow. 

Caitlin stared at it as it drank the rest of the water thirstily in shock. 

Her fingertips reached into the depth of the bucket, trailing against the wet bottom. She pulled it out, examining in the moonlight. They shined bright blue with sparkles. 

Cisco’s pixie dust. Her pixie-mate had enchanted his tool for her, so she’d finish her flower duty and not get exerted in the heat of the sun. 

_ “My dear, this is not about him. He’s got light in his heart.” _

She dropped the bucket numbly, curling into a ball at the flowerbed as the waves lapped at her feet to cry. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, in case you needed a recap, naheka gladly provides an excellent summary of chapter one: 
> 
> Cisco clearly had a crush on Caitlin. 
> 
> He was like: omg can i go with u can i help you heres a bucket i made while dreaming of ur face
> 
> caitlin: JUST LIKE A MAN, THINKS I CANT DO ME JOB

It poured the next morning. Fairies happily flew around and danced, celebrating the end of the drought. Caitlin couldn’t find herself to muster even a smile, rousing from the dirt of the daffodils. She stretched her wings, yawning, and gathered her thoughts as she trekked her way back through Fairy Forest. 

Her eyes felt heavy, her head pulsed with an ache, and her heart still tugged southwards.

Caitlin sighed, making the lonely walk to Fairy Allen’s. She had promised she’d come back. 

Fairy Allen ushered her in when she knocked on the door. “He’s awake.”

Caitlin wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready to meet him as pixie-mates.

She thought she’d sit next to him as he recovered and ease herself into this new fact of life. 

Cisco was for her. He was created to love her. 

She was created to love him. 

Did she?

Her heart stirred, her wings drawing her closer even as her feet shuffled slowly. 

Fairy Allen opened the grass partition, and there he laid on the fairy bed. 

Caitlin didn’t know why she thought he’d be full of colour, shimmering bright, blinking with his curiosity and his lovely smile.

He wasn’t. 

Propped against a pillow, he sat up, looking all kinds of washed out and muted. 

A wave of pain hit her chest, and she instinctively sat in the chair nearby, gripping onto his hand. 

Cisco’s eyes followed her movements, widening at the spark, the glimmer and sheen and burst of colour, the pixie dust which enveloped them in a seal of fate. 

She squeezed his little fingers. 

“Caitlin?” he croaked. He tried to sit up, but Fairy Allen gently pushed him down again, insisting he rest. “You came to see me?”

She couldn’t keep the emotion out of her voice. “Of course I did. We’re pixie-mates.”

The smile on his face was brighter than any sun. “Oh,” he blinked at her, a soft blush rising up his cheeks. “I hoped it would be you.” 

It was a whispered confession into his pillow, she didn’t think she was meant to hear. It made her heart wibble, her shell crack, her everything split open for him to see. 

Caitlin brought up his hand and kissed it gently, then used it to discreetly wipe away her steady flow of guilty fairy tears.

✨

It became evident that Cisco did not remember the accident.

Caitlin exhaled shakily after he told her so, only hearing the tale of nearly every fairy in the forest who visited him about the epic pixie-mate rescue. 

Maybe this was her second chance. Caitlin’s new beginning. 

Stuck on bedrest for a week, Cisco didn’t move, but he didn’t need to, with Fairy Allen and his pixie-mate by his each side. 

Every time he looked at her, it was with awe-struck adoration. 

Caitlin prayed he’d never stop gazing at her with those sparkly eyes, falling for the tinker fairy more and more with every passing day. 

✨

On a Friday, the bedrest was lifted. Caitlin got up bright and early to celebrate her pixie-mate’s big day. She knew he was ecstatic to go home. 

Cisco looked better, he seemed better, his shine now somewhat normal. 

He laughed heartily when Caitlin came in, waving hello.

“Caitlin,” he said, scooting over in his bed so she could sit at the edge. “I want to ask you something.”

She ducked her head, biting her lip. She knew what it was. 

“After I settle down at home, will you go on a picnic with me? As pixie-mates?” He looked so bashful, so earnest yet shy, but something caught his attention, something behind his back.

He frowned, glancing at his shoulder blade, and it was then Caitlin realized his wings didn’t flitter with excitement. It was customary body language when asking a pixie-mate out for wings to hum with enthusiasm. 

Maybe he was still tired. 

Caitlin leaned in, cupping his cheek to move his gaze from his back to look into her eyes instead. She kissed him there and his mouth parted in flustered surprise. “I’d love to.”

Cisco’s previous worry was forgotten, he covered her hand on his face with his own, looking down at the glitter that had rubbed off from Caitlin’s pixie-mate kiss with awe. 

“Can I tell you a secret?” 

Caitlin’s wings thrummed contentedly. “You can tell me anything.”

“The day of the accident...I was building up the courage to ask you out to the summer solstice festival. I was trying to for a month.” 

Caitlin plastered on a smile, but her chest felt tight. The festival had come and gone now, Caitlin having spent it at Cisco’s side. She moved her touch, sliding her hand back to her lap. 

“You were?”

He nodded, rubbing over his shining heart. “I had this compelling feeling to ask you. It was like my destiny. Would you have said _‘yes?’_”

Every ember of her little pixie body screamed at her to say she would’ve said _yes_, but the ultimate events of that day pointed otherwise. The truth was, if Cisco had asked her out to the solstice festival, she wasn’t sure _what_ she would’ve said.

It should’ve been a_ yes._ It should’ve made Caitlin feel like a fairy’s first flight, exhilarated and enthralled. But no, she couldn’t say, she wasn’t sure, and it made her feel terrible and wrong. 

Caitlin leaned her head against his shoulder, her wings wrapping around her pixie-mate. “Let’s not think about that day, okay? It makes me sad.”

Cisco’s face fell. “I’m sorry! I didn’t think about that. I won’t, then.” 

She smoothed the worry lines from his lovely face. “Never mind it. Let’s focus on our future, and getting you out of bed so we can go on our picnic.”

“Really!? Now!?” 

The water fairy giggled at his wide smile. He’d been cooped up in the fairy bed for much too long. She helped lift the blankets off, and gave him her support to stand on wobbly legs. 

“Woah.” 

“Are you okay? Are you dizzy?” 

But Cisco wasn’t listening to her, making a funny movement with his back again. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

He couldn’t seem to catch his footing, off-balance, which was weird, for every fairy’s foot was proportionate to the weight of their wingspan. 

Caitlin was about to ask what he meant, but then she saw it. The awkward droop, the hanging angle of his right wing. 

A yelp escaped from Caitlin’s throat, calling urgently for the healer talent. It alarmed Cisco even more. He tried to hover a foot in the air, but couldn’t even lift off the ground. 

Fairy Allen came a-buzzing, sliding his spectacles up his nose. “Now what seems to be all the commotion?” 

Cisco turned to the sound of Fairy Allen’s voice, and the doctor stepped back in shock. His eyebrows creased with concern as he took in the shrivelled up appearance of Cisco’s wing. 

“I see,” he murmured. 

“What happened to it?” Caitlin reached out to steady Cisco as he kept trying to take off, only to veer sideways, crashing into the grass partition. “Cisco,” she pleaded gently. “You need to slow down.”

“But I can’t _ fly, _” he stressed, his shine going haywire with worry. 

Fairy Allen guided the tinker talent back to the bed. He peered over his patient, poking and prodding at the odd wing, delicately running his fingers along the thin veil. He hummed, licking his lips in concentration, and snapped his fingers at Caitlin to pass him his dust pouches.

After every dousing, they tried to get Cisco to fly again, each to no avail. 

Big tears swam in Caitlin’s eyes as the doctor shook his head, looking ashen himself. “Water damage,” he whispered. “I’ve never seen it so bad.” 

Cisco’s left wing, the working one, was twitching with panic. Caitlin soothed her hand over it, trying to calm the poor thing down. 

“But it’ll heal, won’t it?” Cisco wiggled around, as if trying to jumpstart into flight like a mainland’s engine. His fear was palpable, his voice shook with every word. “It’ll strengthen again, and I’ll be able to fly!”

Caitlin looked over to the healer talent, the greatest in Fairy Forest. His wings brushed against the ground, folding in dismay. 

“Fairy Allen?” she pushed when there was no reply, her heart lodged up in her throat. 

“...I don’t think so.”

He explained how a healthy wing expected to make full recovery should’ve done so with the amount of dust consumed in the period of Cisco’s bedrest. Not to mention, the healing from Caitlin’s pixie-mate kiss, the strongest magic of all, should’ve done the trick. 

Cisco’s wing was broken, permanently bent, twisted out of it’s frame. It truly was a ghastly sight. A pixie’s worst nightmare.

Caitlin covered her mouth with her hand to cover her gasp as Cisco went crashing down on his knees. 

“I’m a_ fairy!” _ he cried, as he curled into himself. A terrified sob wracked his weakened frame. “I _ have _ to fly.” 

“If it weren’t for Caitlin’s kiss of life, you wouldn’t be alive at all,” the old healer reminded firmly. He helped the weeping fairy off the floor, returning him to the bed. “It seems you won’t be going home today after all.” 

That was an understatement. Fairy Allen’s medic hut was in a tall maple tree. There was not even any way for Cisco to get home on his own by foot unless he was willing to climb. That seemed far too strenuous a sport so soon after a near-death experience. They’d have to find a speed fairy to airlift him to his little nook.

The healer fairy bit his lip with uncertainty at the pair. He looked properly dishevelled, his hair mussed from the amount of times he raked his hand through it. “I need to speak to Father Joe,” he told them, then flew out the door in a haste. Caitlin wondered if he'd _ever_ tended to an injury he couldn't actually heal. 

“Cisco?” she whispered, unsure what to do. 

Her pixie-mate merely threw his arms around her neck, crying into her shoulder. His fairy shine dimmed as he lost hope, and it broke Caitlin’s heart. Her wings wrapped around his, comforting him against the bed as he hiccupped. 

“What fairy can’t fly?” he uttered brokenly, heaving as he tried to grapple with this horrible life-altering news. 

Caitlin rubbed her hand down his spine, the middle of his shoulder blades, between the damaged wing and the healthy one. Her other hand reached into his hair, allowing him to let it all out as she sat speechless. 

Guilt rolled like waves in her stomach, tossing and turning like her very pixie-mate did when she pulled him under. 

This was all her fault.

“Who wants a pixie-mate they can’t flutter with?” he continued, miserably. 

“That doesn’t matter to me,” she said through her thick, empathetic tears, only half lying. “I do.” 

He clung onto her tighter. He needed his pixie-mate. Caitlin pushed away her own stormy emotions. He needed her.

And she’ll be here for him, now. 

✨

Caitlin had to leave Cisco behind to inspect a water hole with some other fairies. By the end of the day, the orange sun was kissing the grass of the meadow, and Caitlin had to return to her oak tree home. She looked up at the tall trunk from its roots all the way to its branches waving in the sky. It was impossible to get to the top without the gift of flight. She looked around at the other tree-top homes and scowled.

How would Cisco ever get to be able to come and visit her here on his own? Why was everything built in this Forest with the assumption that wings determined a fairy's worth? 

A pair of pixie-mates laughed at each other as they goofed around on a thin branch. The animal fairy pushing her mate off the branch after a corny joke. Caitlin watched the other fairy tumble in summersaults in the air until his wings expanded. He swooped in the air with an excitable shout and made his way back to his pixie-mate, pulling her against the bark to kiss breathless. Their wings pulsed in synchronization, wrapped around each other in the shimmering sunset. 

Caitlin turned to look away, knowing she'll never have that. 

✨

The next morning it rained. Caitlin’s wings slicked back water as she shook them dry at Fairy Allen’s door. 

His patient's room was awfully dark. She knocked once, then stepped inside. 

“Cisco? I’ve brought fairy cake!”

She frowned at the silence. 

“Cisco?”

She opened the blind to find her pixie-mate’s back turned from her. His damaged wing flat against the fairy bed, looking all kinds of mangled. The other one flapped without any rhythm. Too slow. 

“Cisco?” she tried again, hedging closer. She put her hand on his shoulder, but he bristled straight away. His face turned sharply, all colour drained to a toneless grey. He snarled so severe, Caitlin stumbled back, afraid. 

“What happened?” she wondered aloud. It was jarring to see such a happy-go-lucky fairy this way._ Any_ good fairy, for that matter. Especially Cisco. 

_ “I can’t fly.” _

“I—I know, but—we don’t need your wings to have a picnic!”

She raised her little basket with the fairy cakes and four leaf clovers she had picked just for him.Good luck for her pixie-mate, she had asked Barry, they were supposedly his favourite snack.

She tried to keep her voice chipper. “And you’re such a smart tinker talent, which doesn’t even require flight!”

Cisco’s shoulders tensed, and he made a dry scoffing sound.

“I know this isn’t how you’d wish this to go. This isn't how I wished this to go either, bu—”

“You mean,” he interrupted slowly. Caitlin's words died at once at his dark tone. “Like how you tried to drown me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fairy fics are so cute, aren't they? :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, and now for more fairy angst!

  
_ Thru the veins, to the heart _

_ Do bad dust fairies’ loath depart _

_ Black stained lips, for lies concealed _

_ Past Dark Forest’s path, trails then yield _

_ Banished for justice by Mother Cecile _

  
  


###  ✨

Caitlin’s face went white as her little fingers squeezed against the wicker basket. “Pardon?”

Cisco turned around and there were big dark circles under his dimly lit eyes. “You didn’t think I’d ever remember, right?” 

Caitlin couldn’t speak. Her mouth went dry, as her wings froze with fear. Fairy-blood pounded in her ears. 

Cisco merely stared, waiting. 

Her fingers went numb, digging splinters into her hands, she squeezed and squeezed until the basket fell at her feet. The fairy cake went splat against the floor. 

Horrible thick silence was interrupted when Cisco gave out a cold, brittle huff. As if Caitlin failed by not providing any explanation. 

She had no explanation. How could she dare try? 

“I’m not a tinker fairy,” he said abruptly. 

“W-what?”

“You didn’t know that, did you?”

She flew over to face him, touching his arm the way that would make him melt into her embrace, but he merely hardened, refusing to look at her. Words suddenly came flying out of her mouth. “Of course you’re a tinker. You make so many things! Seed slingers and sunflower staffs and my bucket!” 

He finally met her desperate gaze flatly. “I do that for fun, Caitlin. I’m a tinker, but I’m not a tinker _ talent _. I made things because I needed a hobby during the day while the rest of you worked.” 

“What?” Caitlin repeated once again, dumbfounded. “Then—Then what are you?” 

“I’m a dream fairy.”

  
  


It took a moment for Caitlin to process. “...like Nia Nal?”

  
  


He nodded curtly, trying to keep the waiver from his voice. He continued on, describing his talent void of any pride. Not like how he should. “She sees the mainland. I'm in charge of Fairy Forest. I couldn’t relax, so I went to your dreamscape because I wanted to see you. But you were having a bad dream—about the accident. I saw everything.”

“It was just a—” 

“Don’t do that,” he snapped. “Don’t lie. No nightmare that vivid isn’t also a memory.”

Her wings drooped. “I don’t remember having a nightmare last night.”

Cisco shrugged in a self-deprecating way. “I changed it to a pleasant one. Because that’s what pixie-mates do for each other with their talents.” There was a tremor in his voice. “They don’t use it to _ hurt _ them.”

Caitlin’s slippers touched the ground, her wings curling around herself as she began to cry. “It was a mistake, I didn’t mean to—”

“I can’t fly because of you!” More pixie dust littered the ground. “You made me useless!”

“But we’re _ pixie-mates_!” 

“How can you love me if you don’t even like me? I’ve had the biggest pixie-crush on Caitlin, the ethereal, magical most powerful water fairy ever since you made snow on Christmas, and you—you tried to _ kill _ me.” 

He wasn’t mad anymore, only miserable, despondent, hurt and confused. 

Caitlin hiccuped, her heart ripped in two. 

And then, Fairy Allen stepped in behind with Barry and Jesse the Quick. All three of them, shocked.

“Is that true?” Fairy Allen asked gravely. 

Caitlin’s fairy heart hammered all the way up in her throat. She blinked rapidly as everyone blurred together through her messy tears. She nodded once, her face twisting into a sob. 

“It was an accident! I never wanted to hurt you.”

“But you did. And now I can’t _ fly_.”

She reached out for Cisco, but he scooted backward in the fairy bed, putting his arm up to make distance between them. 

“You should go,” Cisco said, and before Caitlin could take a step forward, Barry grabbed her wrist. He flew her outside the tree, gripping onto her tightly. 

“Leave,” he said. “Now. Before this catches wind. I’m giving you a head start.” 

Caitlin looked at her fairy friend for mercy. “Where do I go?” 

“I don’t care. Just don’t let us find you.” He let go of her only to pull Jesse back as she darted out after her. Caitlin zoomed backward as her chest heaved, realizing she had to go. The two fastest fairies after her trail. 

Other fairies in the air stopped and stared. 

“Tell Cisco that I’m sorry,” she begged, not caring how she pleaded, only that the message got through. “Tell him I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Tell him I’m sorry his pixie-mate is me.” 

Barry nodded then turned away, still holding onto Jesse the Quick, struggling in his arms, yelling to be let go. 

Caitlin fled. 

###  ✨

When a fairy falls from grace, their dust turns darker than black. Their hearts shrivel up like dried ginger, and they lose their way home. 

Caitlin’s wings took her as fast as they could, knowing her speed would not be enough to safely hide from the fast-flyers. The wind blew her hair into her face as she faced the current, little arms stretched out in front of her for the barrier, to meet the invisible wall to Dark Forest. 

She didn't know where it was. No Good Fairy did. But she needed to get there. She needed to find a way. Her head pounded, and her eyes stung, but she refused to cry more tears, to pity her own fate. Not when this was all she deserved. 

Barry’s words rang in her ears. Ice began to coat over her slippers and dress, hardening the necklace clasped tight around her throat until it nearly choked her. She coughed, and cracked it to pieces, flinging it to the ground.

_ Please_, she muttered. _ Please please please. _ Her hands flailed aimlessly in the sky at the edge of the forest, the furthest anyone dare go. The wall had to be nearby, the Dark Forest had to be close. Her mind scattered all over the place, trying to think up her next plan. When she got to Dark Forest, what would she do? Appeal to the crooked kingdom and work for Queen Amunet? Beg for refuge? 

Would she become like them? Are they waiting for her? Do they know she’s coming? 

Was it in fate’s design for Caitlin to cross paths? To shed her light forever? To bare black lips and wicked intentions? To use her powers for destruction? 

Would she have to make hurricanes and floods? Would she be made to tip over boats and drown innocent children under the sea of the mainland? Was this all she good for? 

Murder? 

Caitlin smashed hard against a transparent surface as she had all these thoughts, and all the ice over her dress cracked into pieces at her feet. 

Caitlin jerked back. The wall. She stuck her hand against it and flew as high as she could along the barrier. When she pressed against it, she saw her own reflection, a mirror of Fairy Forest reflecting back at her. 

“Please,” she cried, banging her fists against it. “I don’t belong here anymore! Let me in! Let me in!” Her eyes turned silver as she unleashed her power, throwing water against the wall in an attempt to ram it down. 

But Dark Magic does not work like her own, and the water bounced back against the invisible wall, drenching her completely. 

  
Caitlin coughed, and removed her sopping bangs from out of her eyes. A breeze picked up from the East, and she began to shiver, miserable and cold. Caitlin’s back slid down against the wall. She buried her head in her knees, her wings curling up at her sides like one of her wilted flowers. She didn’t understand why the wall won’t let her in. She was a Bad Fairy. 

A familiar buzzing a few minutes later caught her attention. Caitlin pulled her gaze from her dark, murky thoughts, staring as Lisa made her way towards her. 

“Lisa,” said Caitlin. They have never spoken much before. She used to steer clear of chaos fairies. 

Lisa’s red rose petal dress hugged all her curves, the berry stain on her lips vibrant and beautiful. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “Are you talking to me?” 

Caitlin swallowed. “Can you let me in?” 

Lisa side-eyed her. “To dark Forest? You?” 

Caitlin’s fists clenched as she spoke. “I can’t get through.” 

Lisa laughed, a tinkling sound like wind chimes told in Ralph’s tales about the mainland. “Then it’s not for you.” Lisa stepped out of Caitlin’s way, and easily passed through the wall, disappearing through the other side. Caitlin protested loudly, even after she couldn’t see her, knowing Lisa could see all from her side, like a two-way mirror.

“Lisa, I did something terrible, and I can’t stay here anymore. I need to go!” 

But Lisa was gone. 

###  ✨

Iris found Caitlin asleep at the barrier the next dawn. The light fairy poked at Caitlin’s sleeping figure, kneeling in the dirt path as she cast down her concern. “There’s a warrant for you,” she whispered. “You best turn yourself in.” 

Caitlin’s blood ran cold, backing up against the hard surface. “I-I can’t. I don’t--Why bother? Why talk to me? Even my pixie-mate hates me. I’m not good, Iris.” She turned her head where Lisa left hours ago. “I don’t belong here.” 

Iris followed Caitlin’s gaze with a narrowed look. She bit her lip, and lifted her palm, shining a beam of light at the wall. The invisibility shield yielded under Iris’ heat, giving away to the thick forest hidden beneath. It was dark, foggy and grey. 

Lifeless instead of lively. Bleak instead of boisterous. 

The Bad Fairy’s homeland. 

Caitlin’s wings seized up in fear, and Iris noticed. 

“You want to go_ there?” _

“Iris. I killed him.” 

“You also saved him. Barry told me you said it was an accident.” 

“And still, he wants me gone, doesn’t he?” 

Iris let go of her sunbeam and instead casted it up to the sky, creating daybreak. Caitlin squinted at the sudden sun, more ice shattering around her that had formed in her sleep in the morning haze. 

Iris twisted her hair up with a twig, determined not to leave her friend. “Running away isn’t going to solve anything.”  
  


Caitlin rose to her feet. “Running away?” she shouted. “This is penance! This is my justice!” 

“And how is that going to help Cisco? Severing your pixie-bond?” 

Caitlin glanced aside. “I deserve the pain of separation.” 

“Yes, but does he?” she reasoned. Caitlin forgot she was the daughter of the wisdom fairy. “Cisco still needs you. Banishing yourself there will only hurt him more.” 

Pixie-dust littered the ground. She never thought of what leaving would do to him. Iris was right. Until she could somehow plead a permanent break of their pixie-bond, she can’t leave Cisco to suffer more. 

Her own chest pulled tight, urging her to return back to Fairy Allen’s home. To return to her pixie-mate. Caitlin wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, drawing in a big breath.

“Then arrest me,” she said, making her decision. “I hurt my pixie-mate and now he can’t fly. So if the magic of Fairy Forest won’t see that I’m a Bad Fairy, then take me to Mother Cecile and have her strip my wings.” 

The hum of fairies approaching as the sun climbed higher in the sky was eclipsed by Caitlin’s heart pounding in her ears. 

“Are you sure?” Iris asked. She turned behind them to find her pixie-mate Barry with Kara. 

Caitlin nodded, extending her arms out as silent tears streamed down her face. The Power Fairy unclasped the handcuffs from her flower stem belt. Only the sound of grasshoppers in the high grass met them as Kara clicked the cuffs around Caitlin’s cold, compliant wrists.


	4. Chapter 4

Mother Cecile’s throne room had never glittered so bright. Caitlin felt blinded by the shimmering gold. Blinded and unworthy. 

The cuffs around her wrists pinched. Kara had asked her if they were comfortable long ago, but Caitlin felt she had no right to utter even a word of complaint. 

Iris continued to stand by her side, even now, as others watched and whispered. 

“Silence,” said Mother Cecile at the crowd that had emerged from the village. Nosy fairies, sticking their business into the Mother’s court. Caitlin turned her head away as her hair fell over her face. “This will be no spectacle.” 

The audience hummed as Mother lifted her voice, and raised her hand to quiet them. “We will proceed with the witness testimonies, and then the hearing.” 

One chaos Fairy, Mick, the pyro talent, grunted out loud with displeasure. The throne room hushed. Mother Cecile raised her eyebrows. “Yes, Mick? Do you have a concern?” 

Fairy Mick flew up from his thimble seat. “The water fairy used her powers for evil. Throw her out, I don’t see much point of this fancy trial in the first place. If I did it I’d be locked up in Dark Forest.” 

Several other fairies murmured in agreement. Iris wrapped her warm arm around her friend’s waist, shielding her from their dirty looks. 

“In Fairy Forest, we believe every fairy is good,” Mother Cecile began. “Caitlin has tried to leave the forest, to plunge herself in darkness, and has failed to pass through the magical barrier between good and evil.”

She placed a hand upon the sodden fairy’s shoulder, addressing her, not those born for chaos. 

“What if not then, does compassion not triumph? And what lessons go unlearned?”  
  


“Mother,” Caitlin spoke up, refusing to look left or right at the grumbling crowd. “I believe I should be stripped of my wings.”

Everyone gasped. 

Her chin trembled. “It’s the punishment I deserve.”

Mother Cecile hummed. She looked down, noticing the angry red marks on Caitlin's wrists from the tight cuffs. She smoothed them over with golden pixie-dust, relieving Caitlin from her discomfort then flew back to her chair. “We’ll keep your request in mind.” 

The trial continued with the witness testimonies. Lois, the truth-talent, recorded everything on her lilypad paper. Linda, the storytelling fairy, was the first to testify and reminded everyone of her talent. Caitlin felt sick as the memories of the days came back through Linda’s vivid vocabulary.

Wally retold how he had to restrain his girlfriend from racing after Caitlin when they heard the truth. Fairy Henry explained the Kiss of Life. Ralph recalled his utter bafflement. Iris reminded them all of Caitlin’s dedication to keeping the flowers hydrated during the drought. Caitlin was very glad Lisa was off somewhere in Dark Forest, unavailable to humiliate her by sharing what a miserable mess Caitlin had been at the invisible wall. 

Cisco sat on the bench across from her, and her wings ached in his presence. It was like against the current of the ravine. The intrinsic pull was still so strong.

And Caitlin wanted to follow and obey its wishes, she wanted to yank on the cord which tied them together. She’d pull him across oceans, back to her again. If only he’d look at her from across the courtroom with a sliver of kindness.

An hour into the formalities, someone brought up a question that turned Caitlin’s stomach to lead. 

“I hate to ask,” said Kara. “But are we certain that these two are indeed pixie-mates?” 

Mother Cecile shared a glance with Father Joe. “We can perform a pixie-mate ceremony to confirm it.”

  
  
A pixie dust talent flew forward with the enchanted glitter. He explained to everyone how the procedure worked. If two pixie-mates are destined to share their lives and have been crafted in a manner that compliments their partner, then when the identifying dust is thrown upon each party, they will shine in the same colour, for they’d be made of the same magic. 

Caitlin held her breath as the glitter bag popped over her head with a needle. She did not need any special dust to know the truth. And no matter how she had hurt Cisco, she knew he knew it too. 

Red glitter sparkled as she lifted her arm. Her skin glowed in the light of the courtroom, and she exhaled as she forced herself to turn around. There was Cisco, still sitting in his chair. His wing twisted and shrivelled. 

He glowed bright red. 

Iris held Caitlin’s hand tighter in support when many fairies broke out into shocked and scandalized whispers. It was one thing, to hear a fairy endangered their alleged pixie-mate. It's probably was what drew such a large crowd to the throne room today in the first place. It was another thing altogether to see the proof of a seemingly dysfunctional match this side of Fairy Forest. 

Mother Cecile nodded as if this were no surprise. “Now that that has been settled, we will discuss how we shall serve justice appropriately.” 

Mother Cecile called upon Laurel, the fairy of Justice. 

“As it can be seen,” Laurel began, “Caitlin is forbidden from entering the Dark Forest. This means not only is her heart not dark or her mind corrupted, but due to her commitment to love and care for her pixie-mate, to separate the two would pose more harm than good.” 

Cisco uttered a single word. “Unfair.” 

Mother Cecile paused. “Did you have something to share?” 

Cisco stood up, supporting himself against the makeshift table. “Nobody has asked me what I want. Do you think I want to be her pixie-mate? Do you think I’m happy that my heart skips a beat when she’s near? I know that the forces of pixie-mates are from the old magics, working longer and with forces greater than the fairies mythos, but Mother Cecile, it kills me to know, after everything that has happened. I'm still supposed to long for her.” 

Caitlin covered her mouth to prevent her troubled gasp from echoing across the room. “Cisco, it was an accident. I never wanted--” 

“I don’t care about what you want, Caitlin,” he interrupted bitterly. “You ruined my life!” 

Caitlin’s wings froze, terrified. "I know!" she snapped back, talking over Kara and Laurel, ordering quiet. "And I'm sorry! I didn't ask to be your pixie-mate either, but I still sat by your side every day since the accident because I cared! I know I lied. I know I was deceitful, but I tried to leave Fairy Forest and it wouldn't let me!" 

Iris squeezed Caitlin's hand, trying to calm her down. But she yanked it away, flying over to Cisco's chair in her handcuffs, forcing him to look at her instead of Mother Cecile's lavish throne.

"I'm begging them to rip my flight away! Anything! Just, please..Don't tell me I ruined your life. Having my wings stripped would hurt less than those words!" 

"Why?" 

  
"Because they're coming from you! Cisco--" 

Cecile cut her off. “This pairing needs to be healed. There has been deep wrong and pain that has been forged between you, causing a strain in your harmony. This needs to be restored. But here, in my throne room, is neither the time nor the place.” 

They had adjourned for a recess in an attempt to recover from the pandemonium. Caitlin was brought back to her chair and forced to sit down. On the other side of the room, it seemed as if half of Fairy Forest was surrounding Cisco to see if he were okay. 

When the trial resumed, the justice talent fairy took the floor. Laurel crossed her arms, her wings flitting in slow, steady beats. “The pixie council has recommended a house arrest for the duration of the season.” 

Caitlin flinched. 

Laurel softened her tone, feeling Caitlin’s heartbreak. “However, considering the circumstances...With the sage knowledge of Father Joe and the approval of Mother Cecile, Caitlin, you will visit your pixie-mate once a day.” 

She turned to Cisco, who had sat silently throughout the sentencing, with cold tears streaming down his cheeks. 

“Cisco, you do not need to be accommodating or forgiving to her, but you need to understand that refusing her will not only jeopardize your weak health. It will also damage hers.” 

  
  


✨

Caitlin flew out of the tree the moment Diggle--the guardian talent of Mother Cecile’s throne room--removed her handcuffs. She went high above the forest to see how far she could go on her last day of freedom. 

The air became thick as she swallowed it, narrowly avoiding a collision with a great hawk in the sky. Soon, even the wind grew too much to struggle against. She let it bring her westward. She floated along with an oak key, twirling and twirling until it landed on a smooth pebble by the ravine.

She stumbled and lost her balance, cross stepping on the rock from her vertigo. 

Caitlin sat down on the surface, and removed her slippers, letting her feet wade in the shallow pool. The frog beside her ribbited, and she sighed, burying her head in her hands as the waves lapped at her ankled. 

Caitlin was tired of being tired.

  
It felt like she was there for hours, and so, when her wings picked up without her permission, her back went straight and her ears pricked at the rustle of leaves. 

She turned her head over her shoulder, and there, walking slowly barefoot through some dried foliage was her pixie-mate. 

Caitlin didn’t know what to say. Only watching curiously as he sat beside her on the rock, looking forward. He drew his legs to his chest, wrapping his arms around his knees. He stared straight ahead at the ravine. 

_ I’m sorry, _ she wanted to tell him. _ This is all my fault. You deserve better. You deserve so much better. Why do you have to suffer for my mistakes? _

But her words died on her tongue when she looked his way. 

“Are you shaking?” 

He refused to look at her, staring out at the water and the moving waves. “I’m so afraid,” he confessed quietly. “Being this close to the water.” 

Caitlin looked down at her shins, shiny with the pool’s liquid. Cisco, on the contrary, was nearly curled into a ball on the rock, as if he’d been trying as hard as possible to stay dry. 

As if, even if his smallest toe hit the water, he’d die. 

_ Who’s fault is that? _

“Then why are you here?”

“My body is at ease when I’m around you, you know. But my mind…” He splayed out his hands, charading an explosion. 

“Yeah,” she muttered. “Same here.” 

His humour disappeared. “No, it’s not the same.” 

She put a hand over his. “Cisco.” 

He yanked his hand away as if burned. 

“I don’t want to give you another chance. Why do I have to give you another chance?” 

“Cisco?” 

“I’m so mad. I’m so mad. I want to hate you. I’m so mad that I can’t hate you, Caitlin. I hate that so much.”

Caitlin swallowed, kicking her feet in the water. “You are allowed to hate me. You can feel however you want. I’d hate me too if I were you.”

“Except,” he said. “Except, I don’t. I can’t. I don’t want to.” He hiccuped. “_ That’s _ why I’m mad.” 

Cisco swiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. His broken wing swung lifelessly in the wind, just a decoration. Caitlin couldn’t take her eyes off it even if she tried, her stomach curdling with nausea. 

“I understand,” she replied stiffly.

“You _don’t _understand,” he snapped, knowing she wasn’t looking at his face.

She saw the way his throat bobbed as he talked. The way his eyes glistened with the threat of tears. And every time the waves crashed against the pebble, he closed himself further, tightening like a coiled spring. 

Caitlin lifted her feet from the ravine and stood upon the rock. Water dripped down her legs as Cisco watched her in silence. Her wings fluttered as she hovered over the mass of water and stood over the waves. She splayed her toes, and just like that, she stilled the water, smoothing the waves over in spidery trails. She pressed down her feet against the cold surface, and the entire radius of the rock embalmed in thick ice. 

Caitlin reached for Cisco’s hand, pulling him up gently, coaxing him to stand with her. He took the most hesitating step forward, gripping onto her like a vice. 

Cisco stared down at their reflection through the frozen ravine. “I didn’t know you could do that in the Summer.”

Caitlin shrugged. They were still holding hands. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, either.” 

He looked away at that. 

Caitlin took a breath, her heart lodged up in her throat. “Nobody is asking you to love the water. Nobody is asking you to love me. I just don’t want you to hurt anymore, Cisco. I think even strangers could wish for that.” 

Caitlin’s wings curled around Cisco’s frame. She hadn’t meant them to. Cisco leaned back against them, closing his eyes as if ashamed to relish in her comfort. He had yet to open them when he asked her, “Why did you ask to get your wings stripped? Is that what you think I want?” 

Caitlin slipped for a moment, startled by his question. He kept her steady on her element without the help of flight. When she gained her bearings, she looked at him oddly. “I made you unable to fly. I don’t deserve to fly either.” 

“You need your wings,” he rationed. “You can’t swim without them. You can’t water tall stalks without them, either. They’re a part of your talent.” 

“There are other water fairies out there,” she argued, unable to believe they were having this discussion. She was certain a few days ago he’d have agreed with her that she should be stripped. “I don’t deserve them.”

“Even bad fairies have wings,” he said. 

She bristled. If he was trying to get Caitlin to hate herself for what she’d done, it was working, but she didn’t need his help. “What’s your point?” 

Caitlin’s wings unfurled from around Cisco, hauling her up from the ice. She picked him up and flew him a few feet over to the solid earth. He shook off her littered pixie-dust that had landed on his shoulders. Clearly, He didn’t want a speckle of it on his body.

She tried to not think of that, as she turned back to the frozen ravine. She bent down, pressing against the ice with a hum, letting her wings glow to the cold out from its solid form to return the ravine back to cool, refreshing water. 

  
  


He softened his voice when she turned around to face him. He had been leaning against a tree in the shade, still just as in awe by her talent as he was the last time they were here. Caitlin’s heart squeezed as he flicked his hair out of his eyes. He was just as frustrating to her now as he had been, then. 

“My point,” he said. “Is that I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. Not even my sworn enemy.” 

Caitlin frowned. “You mean me?” 

“No.”

She could see the burning anger in the fairy’s soul through his eyes as he met her gaze. Yet his words were somehow impossibly gentle. “You’re my pixie-mate.” 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The trial scene took me 5evah to write. I'm sorryyy. Ya'll, I think we're officially almost through the heaviest of the fairy angst. Maybe. Probably. We'll see.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> House arrest, it turned out, was a terrible punishment for a water fairy.

House arrest, it turned out, was a terrible punishment for a water fairy.

Caitlin squinted at the bright light shining through her window and felt called to her front door to check on her flowers. She shook open her wings and rubbed at her eyes with a sleepy yawn. One foot out, another, and then suddenly a buzzing angry cuff around her ankle. She gasped as it shocked her. Other fairies, her neighbours who were also out to perform their tasks of the day glared at her racket. 

Caitlin retreated slowly, back into her little home. "Woah," she muttered to herself. "Okay." 

So this was what being a convict felt like.

Her wings flapped twice, as if in disapproval of her negativity. How was she ever to get to Cisco's like this? 

  
  


Halfway through the morning, Caitlin opened her window. She pushed a chair against the frame and sat against the windowsill, watching as the rest of Fairy Forest came to life. She bit her lip as she saw Fairy Thomas fly by. He caught her wave and flew back to meet her at the window. 

"Caitlin," he tilted his head as his wings flapped rapidly as if in a hurry to carry on. "Is there something you need? I heard about your... predicament." 

Caitlin smiled tightly.  _ Predicament. _ That was a very polite way to put it. 

"If you don't mind, I just wanted to know if you were heading to the ravine." 

"Well...." He looked in its direction. "You know I'm in charge of the pond." 

"I know," Caitlin replied quickly. "But my flowers...I just don't want them to wither. Thomas, please. I worked so hard on them. They need their water." 

Thomas crossed his arms when he saw her eyes well with tears. "I'll see what I can do." 

"Thank you! Thank you so much! I wanted to know if a wisdom fairy could come by and see me. I don't know how I'm supposed to see my pixie-mate without getting hurt by my cuff.” 

Thomas nodded again. "Is that all?" 

Caitlin sighed. She supposed it was fair that he didn’t want to be seen chatting too long with a fairy under punishment. "Yes, that's all." 

The older water fairy left. 

Some hours later Caitlin’s wings began to droop. She twirled around, touching their film, wondering what was the matter.

"Are you okay?" she mumbled, petting her left one. It only seemed more forlorn. 

Maybe it was Cisco. But Caitlin thought she had grown used to the way their pixie-mate connection worked. It made her heart feel tingly, and her wings would get excited. This was the opposite. Was she sick? Was  _ he _ sick?

With nothing to do but worry, and feel only  _ more _ out of sorts, it was a miracle someone knocked on her door so soon. 

  
  


"Father Joe!" Caitlin exclaimed, nearly tripping over herself to make room and invite him in. When she asked Thomas for a wisdom fairy, she didn't expect to get THE wisdom fairy. Not after what she'd done. For Father Joe, she didn't think she deserved the time of day, nevermind a house visit. 

  
  


"Caitlin," he greeted kindly. His large wings expanded in her doorway, silver pixie dust littering the floor. He was holding a bucket of water. "I knew you'd be in poor spirits." 

"Poor spirits?" She couldn't deny that. But that couldn’t explain why her wings were drooping, could it? She’d been in ‘poor spirits’, so to speak since the drought.

"...I understand that Mother Cecile and justice talent Laurel ordered you to stay here for the remainder of the season with the exception of your daily visit to your own Cisco.” He gave her a look. "Which I know you have been avoiding, by the way." 

Caitlin shrunk. That wasn’t fair. She didn’t know how to get there. Or what would be waiting for her when she did. 

"We’ll discuss that in a moment. When was the last time you went a day without water?" 

Caitlin stared.  _ Oh. _

Father Joe raised an eyebrow and handed over the full bucket of freshwater from her ravine. "You're a water talent. You need it to survive." 

  
  


“...I didn't know that." She reddened at the ears. It sounded ridiculous. Of course, a water fairy would need water. 

Joe laughed, taking a seat at her lonely table. He glanced at the fairy cake half-eaten on the plate. "That's because you never went a day without it to find out.” 

"Oh," Caitlin said. "I see." 

Joe told her to wash her own wings with the water. That as a water fairy who could no longer respond to her urges to use water as she pleased, she would become thirsty and needed the time to let her wings soak.

Caitlin felt relaxed immediately as she felt the water trickle down her back. It was so refreshing, she felt tears flow from the corner of her eyes. 

Was this how she'd feel every day? Thirst for her water, miserable and scorched? 

That’s awful. It couldn't be right. Joe took her hand. "I know what you're thinking. There is a way to relieve your pain, and that is visiting your pixie-mate. Your Cisco." 

Caitlin sniffled. "How am I supposed to go see him if my ankle monitor buzzes at me every time I so much as take a step outside!?” 

Joe smiled at her. "The pixie magic knows when you are going to see your other half. It will never forbid you to go to him."

Caitlin crossed her arms. She hardly understood how seeing Cisco be so terribly angry with her would make her feel better. And furthermore, she couldn't think she could handle this for a whole season.

Not for the first time she wondered why she couldn't have just been thrown into Dark Forest. Surely, she'd be miserable there, but at least it was a fate deserved.  _ And _ there'd be water. 

Joe stood up, his silver wings expanded and he bowed his head. Caitlin nodded back in proper fairy courtesy, as she realized she should have done when he first entered her home in the first place.

"Thank you for helping me," she said softly.  "I'm sorry that I've been so....Unfairy like." 

She sighed, running her hand through her hair. "I still feel as if there’s something wrong with me, Father. Like I misplaced what made me good. I wish I were better." 

  
  


Joe squeezed her hand. "Caitlin, here are some words of wisdom: You have so much time on your hands now, to reflect, to ponder, to reform. Put away the Caitlin of the past. The ones who made the mistakes, who pushed Cisco into the ravine, and focus on the opportunity you have now to be a Caitlin of the future. A new one, a gentle, kind water talent. One who will bring joy to people, and love to her pixie-mate. One who will make herself proud.” 

“That sounds so hard.” 

“Oh I know,” he told her. “But I know you can do it.” 

  
  


Okay," Caitlin whispered and watched as Fairy Joe flew off into the sky. 

Her wings seemed to have been overjoyed at the prospect of getting to see Cisco. They kept humming, now properly quenched of their overheated thirst, and urged her to go, uplifting her body from the floor, impatient. 

Caitlin tutted at her wings. If she were to go see her pixie-mate, the least she could do was clean herself up so he wouldn’t have to see her mess. Her restlessness and near sickness had put her appearance into a wreck. Her eyes sunk into her face, her skin was less than glory.

  
  


She grabbed some more water and splashed it over her face, then went to her little drawer and smoothed over her fairy cream. Her dust sprinkled against the ground and she looked at herself in her tiny shard of mirror that Ralph had found for her from the mainland. 

"I guess this will have to do." Caitlin took a deep breath as she opened her front door once again. Her ankle with the monitor shook as she tried to move it past the threshold. "Please don't buzz. Please don't buzz," she muttered under her breath. But just as Father Joe told her, she was able to freely leave.

The exhilaration that came with temporary freedom nearly blinded her. She zoomed out, flying around in loops. The air rushed against her red cheeks, her heart thudded in her chest. 

When she got to Cisco’s nook, she had realized for the first time she’d never yet been in. When she cared for him in the days they had grown closer, it was always at Fairy Allen’s medical tree. Caitlin understood now, why they had kept him there as she made her way up the old, tall oak. Cisco’s house was at the top of one of the tallest trees in Fairy Forest. It would’ve taken a pack of fairies to carry him up here. 

Caitlin knocked on the bark door and flattened her marigold dress. Cisco opened up a shade from his little doorway.

"Hi," he said. He leaned against the doorframe, his broken wing dangling in the draft. 

"Hi," Caitlin said in reply. It was unbelievably awkward. "Can I come in?"

Cisco rolled his eyes a bit, opening the entry wider. Her wings closed in to make room, and she looked around his house. He had gadgets and tools everywhere littered across the floor, on shelves, and even as a pile on a perfectly made bed. 

Her eyes lingered on a collection of baskets in the corner, and her heart tried not to squeeze with regret. 

"I'm sorry it's messy," he said. "It's always messy but I've had a hard time cleaning up because of my balance." 

"It's alright," Caitlin said to him, but the question about the unused bed remained on her tongue.

“You’re not a neat freak, are you?” 

“No,” Caitlin lied. She’d suck it up. 

  
  


He followed her gaze to the bed and sighed. "That’s normal. I haven't slept in three months before I...got hurt."

"Three months!?" 

Cisco glanced at her oddly as he swept off a mountain of dandelion fluff from his only table. "You don't know anything about dream fairies, do you?"

It wasn't mean, the way he said it, but there was something to his tone that made her bristle anyway. 

No," she said, wringing her wrists. She sat down gingerly at the newly cleared table. "Maybe you could tell me?" 

Cisco hugged his arms around himself. "It's a bit of a long story to explain.” 

"Well, I have nowhere else to go." 

He scoffed, turning away. Caitlin realized it was the wrong thing to say. 

"Cisco," Caitlin said gently. "You have to tell me what I can do. You have to help me. I can only do so much on my own. You have to make this less miserable for both of us in order to move past this." 

"I don't have to do anything," he snapped. "I can move at whatever pace I want to and it'll be your job to just adjust to it." 

Caitlin jerked back. 

Cisco realized the harshness of his words and backpedalled. "I didn't mean…” 

Caitlin fixed her gaze to his messy floor. Her jaw ticked. "Yes, you did." 

Cisco groaned and walked right across the room to the wall. He thunked his head against it.

"I think my brain also got water damage." 

"That's not funny," Caitlin told him. 

Her wings began to cry. Apparently they were upset that her pixie-mate had flown so far away. She looked at them sheepishly. "Not  _ now, _ " she hissed. 

Cisco spun on his heel, eyebrows raised. "You...talk to your wings?" 

Caitlin blushed. "Um." Something lifted in Cisco's expression, light features dancing across his face. "You do! You talk to your wings! That's so cute! I"ve never seen or heard of that before oh my gosh, and do they respond back to you?!" 

Caitlin stared at him, taken aback. How does a fairy go from asking for space one minute, then calling her cute the next? Her wings were practically humming from his praise.

"Um...Well, yes. They do. I've learned their patterns and noises so I usually know what they want." 

"What do they want?" Cisco reached forward to touch the film of her right wing. Pixie-dust left as residue as he pulled back. He looked at his own fingers in surprise. "They're damp!" He really was a curious fairy. 

"Yes. They absorb moisture." Caitlin explained how her illness had taken her by surprise early that day, and that Father Joe had to provide her with some water to not get sick. “And they wanted to...Be close to you, I suppose. It’s when they’re the most satisfied. Aren’t yours the same?” 

“Well…” Cisco drawled. His broken wing looked so terrible, limp like that. “I can’t really get a sense of what my wing feels since it’s been in overdrive. The other one is dead completely." 

"...Does it hurt?" Caitlin reached to touch it, but Cisco squirmed away. 

"It doesn't hurt. It's dead." 

"You mentioned you had an issue with balance?" Caitlin approached the topic carefully, she didn’t want to overstep, not with how well this was surprisingly going now. 

Cisco shrugged. "A bit. I’ve been tripping a lot." 

Caitlin covered her mouth. "Oh no!"

“It's not so bad. Barry and Wally have been helping me and I've started to learn how to climb."

"Cimbing trees!?" 

"Well no... Not yet. That would take some more time. I'm starting with small things like large mushrooms and corn plants.” 

She smiled at the image of Cisco attacking the largest oyster mushroom near Sara's flowerbed. "That’s good!” 

Cisco reached into his food basket and produced some berries to slice in half and offer her. “I hope you’re not patronizing me.” 

“I’m not." 

Caitlin looked at Cisco and he stared back. "You're infuriating, you know,” he said eventually. 

"Why's that?" 

"You're gorgeous. Talented. Somewhat kind." He shrugged, keeping his hands busy with his berry half. "It's infuriating." 

Caitlin stared at him, wide eyed. 

He looked up. "And I really don't like you anymore. Just to be clear. My crush is gone.” 

  
She flinched. It was quite possible that the two fairies have swapped roles. Caitlin found herself pining after him, chasing for so much as a smile. And Cisco, well...It was clear now. He was simply a friendly fairy. Good in his heart, as Father Joe had always tried to explain. His wing didn’t even seem to particularly care for her longing aches. He didn’t really feel for her, not the way he was supposed to. 

"What you did to me was awful."

“It was a mistake." It felt like this was her new mantra. 

"I'm not talking about the accident.” He ran a hand through his hair. “ I'm talking about all the lies that came after. What was awful was how close I was to falling for you completely when you let me believe you saved me before I got to your dreamscape. I was only_ in_ your dreamscape because I wanted to give you good dreams." 

"Cisco." 

"I thought that you cared for me, that you were there for me. All those days, when you'd sit by my side. I thought it was from your own love for me, Caitlin. Our pixie-mate bond. But it wasn’t that. It was your remorse.” 

Caitlin didn't know what to say. 

He tucked a frizzy strand of hair behind his little ear. “So it’s hard, you see. It’s hard for me to trust you again. Honestly, I don't know if I can.” 

They sat in silence for some time. “Do you want me to go?” 

He closed his eyes and nodded, bringing his knees to his chest. He looked weary, and it pained her to consider the adjective as it crossed her mind but...weak. “I think it’s best you should.” 

“Alright.” She dragged herself from the chair, and it was even harder than the last time, forcing her wings to pick her up and go. “Until tomorrow.” 

As Caitlin hovered in the air in front of his oak tree, Cisco called her back in. His eyes were red-rimmed but he had his arms out open in invitation.

Caitlin tilted her head at him, puzzled. 

“For your wings,” he said, beckoning her closer. 

Caitlin flew straight into his arms, hiding her face into the crook of his neck. Cisco let her wings curl around his own, cocooning him completely until they were happy. Caitlin held her breath as she was given this precious moment. 

How was she to do this every single day?


End file.
